DECIUS SCAURUS – Fictional character. Veteran of the Tenth, he originally served under Caesar but later sided with Pompey’s supporters and took a position with Sergius Quintilianus, for whom he attempted, unsuccessfully, to stop Publius Sextius.
LUCIUS CALPURNIUS PISO CAESONINUS – Caesar’s father-in-law. A man of consular rank and a refined intellectual, he was responsible for having Caesar’s will opened and read in Antony’s home.
LUCIUS MUNATIUS PLANCUS – A consummate opportunist, Plancus managed to survive all the civil wars unscathed. Consul in 42 BC, the year in which he founded Lyon (Lugdunum), he was Caesar’s friend. Immediately after the assassination he did everything he could to avert the risk of a new civil war. In the years that followed, he sided at times with Octavian, at times with Antony. It was he who proposed in the Senate in 27 BC that Octavian be awarded the title Augustus. He was also a man of letters.
LUCIUS PONTIUS AQUILA – Conspirator. Tribune of the plebs in 45 BC, he was the sole person who refused to stand at Caesar’s passage while celebrating his triumph in Spain. Caesar was furious, and mocked him at length for this act. After the Ides, he became Decimus Brutus’s second-in-command. In 43 BC he was killed during the siege of Modena (Mutina).
LUCIUS TILLIUS CIMBER – Conspirator. Initially one of Caesar’s supporters, he was the propraetor for Bithynia and Pontus in 44 BC. He played an active role in the conspiracy. On the Ides of March, he signalled to the others by tugging at Caesar’s toga with the excuse of asking that his brother be recalled from exile. He eventually joined up with Cassius at Philippi, where he died.
MARCUS AEMILIUS LEPIDUS – Born into an illustrious family, he was praetor in 49 BC and proposed the law which named Caesar dictator. He was consul in 46 BC and acted as magister equitum (‘commander of the cavalry’) in 45–44 BC. Caesar was invited to dinner at his home the night before the Ides of March, and when the question of what was the best death was raised (perhaps agreed upon beforehand by some of the guests) Caesar replied, in a curiously prophetic way, ‘sudden and unexpected’. After the dictator’s death, at Antony’s suggestion, Lepidus dined with Brutus in an attempt to reach an agreement. After the War of Modena (Mutina) he sided with Antony, joining him and Octavian in the second triumvirate. Octavian’s irresistible rise to power relegated Lepidus to the prestigious but secondary role of Pontifex Maximus (High Pontiff), the position he assumed after Caesar’s death.
MARCUS ANTONIUS (Mark Antony) – Caesar’s fellow consul in 44 BC. He was born on 14 January, 84 BC, and after a reckless youth he sided with Caesar, to whom he was related, participated in the Gallic War and joined Caesar after he had crossed the Rubicon. After the Battle of Munda in March 45 BC, he was approached by Caius Trebonius and asked to participate in a plot to take Caesar’s life. He refused but never revealed this conversation. During the Lupercalia festival in February 44 BC, all sources agree that he offered Caesar the king’s crown, which was refused. His behaviour remained ambiguous during the Ides of March conspiracy in 44 BC It was Trebonius who delayed him outside the Senate while the conspirators were murdering Caesar, thus effectively saving Antony’s life. Considered an impulsive, violent and dissolute man, he showed extraordinary political acumen in the hours following Caesar’s death which allowed him to turn the situation around and force the conspirators into a defensive position within days. One year later (April 43 BC) he initiated the War of Modena (Mutina) against Decimus Brutus who was governing Cisalpine Gaul. Defeated, he joined Lepidus in Gaul and from there organized the summit with Octavian that led to the second triumvirate, the elimination of Cicero, his arch enemy, and ultimately the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi. Once Lepidus was out of the picture, he shared dominion of the empire with Octavian, keeping the East for himself and marrying Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. Defeated at the Battle of Actium, in Greece, in September 31 BC, he attempted in vain to hold off against Octavian at Alexandria and ended up committing suicide.
MARCUS JUNIUS BRUTUS – Conspirator. Born into the illustrious jens Junia he was thus a direct descendant of Lucius Junius Brutus, who had driven out the last king of Rome and founded the Republic nearly 500 years earlier. Servilia, his mother, was Caesar’s mistress for many years, fostering the rumour that Brutus was Caesar’s natural son. Brutus grew up under the influence of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis who embodied the most conservative current of Roman society. Cato was his uncle and became his father-in-law when he married Cato’s daughter Porcia. In keeping with his Stoic education, Brutus sided with Pompey at Pharsalus. Although he was later pardoned by Caesar and enjoyed a close personal relationship with him, he became the ideological hub of the conspiracy. After the Ides of March, he was forced to flee to the East. In 42 BC he fought at Philippi where he was defeated by the triumvirs and committed suicide. Plutarch says (Brutus 36) that before the battle he was visited by a frightful ghost who announced his defeat.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO – One of the great cultural figures of ancient Rome, famous as an orator. In 63 BC, as consul, he had a central role in the harsh repression of Catiline’s conspiracy. Robbed of a primary role in politics by the first triumvirate, he supported Pompey, albeit without great conviction, and was later pardoned by Caesar. At the time of the plot against Caesar, he maintained an attitude of great prudence, perhaps convinced, at least in part, that the conspirators were unlikely to be capable of restoring the traditional Republican institutions. This fundamental indecisiveness came to the fore again later when he tried to obtain Octavian’s protection. The open hostility he showed towards Antony (who he attacked violently in his Philippics) would ultimately prove fatal. In 43 BC he was killed by Antony’s soldiers, and his head and hands were put on public display on the Rostra.
MARCUS TULLIUS TIRO – Cicero’s secretary. Once a slave, he had been freed and became one of the orator’s closest associates. A renowned man of letters himself, he published some of Cicero’s works. He is also remembered for having invented a stenography system, the Tironian notes. He outlived the man who had once been his master, dying when he was nearly one hundred years old on a farm that he owned near Pozzuoli (Puteoli).
MUSTELA – Fictional character. Spy and hit-man for the forces opposing Caesar. An unattractive, dangerous individual, well fitting his nickname ‘mustela’ or weasel. Fearless and determined, he races against time in a duel to the death with centurion Publius Sextius ‘the Cane’.
NEBULA – Fictional character. Spy and informer. The most elusive figure in the novel, he can seemingly melt away into the countryside at will. A man of no face; only his voice identifies him. Yet he plays a central role, because the information he provides is wholly accurate and could save Caesar’s life if it reaches Rome in time.
PETRONIUS – Played such a secondary role in the conspiracy (it is said that he provided the weapons) that he is remembered by historians by his nomen only. Perhaps killed at Ephesus by Antony in 41 BC.
POPILIUS LAENAS – Elderly senator, friend and confidant of Cicero as evidenced in the letters they exchanged. Both Plutarch and Appian report that on the Ides of March, he approached Brutus and Cassius, urging them to carry out their plan without wasting time, citing the risk that news of the plot might leak.
PORCIA – Wife of Marcus Junius Brutus and daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis. Loyal to conservative Republican ideals, according to Plutarch (Brutus 13), she was a passionate, proud, intelligent woman who loved her husband. She was aware of the conspiracy.
PTOLEMY CAESAR – Son of Caesar and Cleopatra. When his mother returned to Egypt after Caesar’s death, she had him recognized as king. After the Battle of Actium and the suicides of Antony and Cleopatra, he was murdered on Octavian’s orders.
PTOLEMY XIII – Son of Ptolemy XII Auletes, he was nominally King of Egypt from 51 to 47 BC. Tradition has it that he was married to Cleopatra, his older sister, and was meant to rule with her. The members of Cleopatra’s court, in particular Achillas, who commanded the Egyptian army and was behind Pompey
’s treacherous murder, plotted to bring about the ‘Alexandrian War’ in which Ptolemy took on Caesar and his newly acquired mistress, Cleopatra. He drowned in the Nile during a battle, leaving Cleopatra the sole sovereign of Egypt.
PUBLIUS SERVILIUS CASCA – Conspirator. Present at the Lupercalia festival where he acted in an ambiguous way. He was the first to strike Caesar, near the neck. After being defeated at Philippi in 42 BC he committed suicide.
PUBLIUS SEXTIUS, known as ‘the Cane’ (Baculus) – Front-line centurion, fiercely loyal to Caesar. The character is freely inspired by a centurion who actually existed, Publius Sextius Baculus, whose endeavours were so heroic as to be mentioned three times by Caesar in his De Bello Gallico. The first passage (II, 25) recounts a severely wounded Baculus standing off against the Nervii tribe who are overwhelming the Twelfth Legion. In the second, Baculus, acting as the senior centurion of the entire legion, is taking part in a war council, consulting with Galba, the legate of the Twelfth, and with military tribune Volusenus, on how to repel an attack on the winter camp (III, 5). Finally (VI, 38), while recovering from his battle wounds, he is fighting off the enemy as they threaten to penetrate the camp. He demonstrates almost super-human willpower and loyalty to his general, willing to face any trial in order to save him, without a moment’s hesitation.
PULLUS (‘Chick’) – Fictional character. He has no mother or father, but was brought up by the army and taught to carry out any number of tasks and services, although there is only one thing he is really good at: running. His inexhaustible energy allows him to run for entire days and nights, light as a feather, even on the roughest, most hostile terrain. This ability proves precious in saving the lives of Vibius and Rufus.
QUINTUS LIGARIUS – Conspirator. Famous for Cicero’s eloquent defence of him in the Pro Quinto Ligario after he had been accused of treason. How he died is not known, as is true for several of the minor conspirators, but Suetonius (Caesar 89) claims that none of those who stabbed Caesar lived more than three years after that day, and that none of them died of natural causes.
RUBRIUS RUGA – Conspirator. A lesser figure in the conspiracy about whom not much is known. The circumstances of his death are also unknown.
RUFUS – Fictional character. A young man belonging to the reconnaissance corps (speculatores). All of his features give away his Celtic origins: he is tall, blond, his eyes are an iridescent blue. His heart is still torn between the legacy of his ancestors and his Roman soul. Together with his friend Vibius, he races against time to make sure that the precious information he has about the conspiracy makes it to Rome.
SERGIUS QUINTILIANUS – Fictional character. Supporter of Pompey and veteran of Pharsalus, where he lost his son. A man of principle, he is obsessed by the desire for revenge, and plays an important role in preventing the messengers from getting their information through to Rome. His fate is decided in a dramatic final encounter with centurion Publius Sextius.
SERVILIA – Half-sister of Marcio Porcius Cato Uticensis. A woman of extraordinary personality, she was Caesar’s mistress for many years. Suetonius (Caesar 50) claims that Caesar loved her more than any other woman, to the extent that he gave her, on the occasion of his first consulship (59 BC), the gift of a pearl worth six million sesturtii, an enormous amount. From her first marriage with Marcus Brutus, Marcus Junius Brutus was born. She had three daughters with her second husband, Decimus Junius Silanus; as fate would have it, one married Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, another Cassius Longinus, one of the conspirators.
SILIUS SALVIDIENUS – Fictional character. Centurion of the Twelfth Legion, Caesar’s adjutant. Utterly loyal to his commander, he is concerned that Caesar is putting himself at risk and circumspectly collects information with the help of Antistius, hoping to put Caesar on his guard. He begins to suspect Antony, and discovers by chance that he is seeing Cleopatra unbeknownst to Caesar. He and Publius Sextius render Caesar last honours during the funeral ceremony at the Campus Martius.
SURA – Fictional character. Taciturn mountain guide, he leads Sextius through the sinister Apennine forests one long, snowy night.
TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS – One of Cicero’s closest friends, his nickname – ‘Atticus’ – referred to the twenty years he spent in Athens when Marius and Sulla were warring. He never entered politics; his dedication to his studies shielded him from the violence of the civil conflict that followed. His sympathies lay with Pompey’s supporters and the Republicans, but only on a personal level. He thus survived the wars between the triumvirs and Caesar’s assassins and the later clash between Antony and Octavian, unscathed. He was a great scholar, expert in a number of disciplines and keeper of one of the most important private libraries of Rome. He wrote a work celebrating his friend Cicero’s consulate and his victory over Catiline. He kept up an intense correspondence with Cicero, which has been preserved. When he fell gravely ill in 32 BC, he refused to take any nourishment and starved himself to death at the age of seventy-eight.
TITUS SPURINNA – Etruscan augur. Suetonius remembers him as the man who warned Caesar against an imminent threat on the Ides of March. On the fatal day, mocked by Caesar who reminded him of his dire prophecy, Spurinna replied that the Ides of March had come but were not yet gone.
VIBIUS – Fictional character. A scout (speculator) like Rufus, he is the exact opposite of his friend, physically: his dark hair and black eyes are typical of his Apulian origins. The bond between Vibius and Rufus comes through in their easy camaraderie, seeming to incarnate the simplicity and courage of the Italic peoples.
‘THE WRESTLER’ – Fictional character. Works for Caesar’s supporters. He knows the territory like the back of his hand, and his brutish appearance belies his skilfulness and intelligence. He struggles against all odds in the attempt to get the message that could save Caesar to Rome.
Places of Ancient Rome
(mid first century BC)
CAESAR’S VILLA BEYOND THE TIBER – It is not known exactly where the villa stood; presumably in the modern Trastevere district, in the direction of Ostia. The villa which housed Cleopatra was surrounded by extensive gardens, rich with trees, statues and water-lilied ponds. Antony’s villa was probably not far away, perhaps on the Janiculum.
CAMPUS MARTIUS – An area north-west of the city and outside the metropolitan territory dedicated, since the age of the kings, to Mars, the god of war. The ‘Field of Mars’ was once used for growing crops, but became urbanized during the Republican and Imperial ages. Pompey had a theatre built there, along with the Curia where Julius Caesar was assassinated.
DOMUS PUBLICA – The residence of the Pontifex Maximus, located near the Regia (meaning ‘royal residence’) where the kings of Rome were said to have lived. Religious rites were celebrated at the Regia in Caesar’s day.
FORUM – The forum was the political, economic and religious heart of the city, the place that preserved the most ancient memories of the origin of Rome. The area was once a marsh before it was drained by the Tarquinian kings who built the city’s first sewer, the Cloaca Maxima, which made it possible to pave the area and transform it into a public meeting place. The forum was surrounded by the great basilicas, the Senate Curia, the Regia, the House of the Vestals and the Rostra, the great tribune from which orators spoke.
HOUSE OF THE VESTALS – Residence of the vestal virgins and the Vestalis Maxima, the chief vestal, whose duty it was to ensure that the sacred fire burning in the circular Temple of Vesta never went out. It was located at the point where the Via Sacra joined the Via Nova, which led to the Palatine.
POMPEY’S CURIA – The temporary seat of the Senate. Pompey’s Curia was one of the great monumental structures raised in the Campus Martius. It was part of an enormous complex built in 55 BC that included a temple, a theatre and a gigantic four-sided portico that ended with the Curia where the Senate held its session on the Ides of March, 44 BC. Opposite it were four Republican temples whose ruins are still visible today at the Largo di Torre Argentina square.
PORT OF OSTIA – The settlement, which probably dates back to the fourth century BC, was founded, according to tradition, by none other than Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome. It was the harbour and emporium of Rome. Ships arrived from all over the Mediterranean laden with goods that were redistributed on to smaller boats that sailed up the Tiber to the city, where they were then unloaded into the warehouses lining the riverbanks.
TEMPLE OF DIANA – There were several temples dedicated to Diana in Rome; the most famous stood on the Aventine hill. The one where Caesar and Servilia meet in the novel is found in the area of the Flaminius Circus in the Campus Martius.
TEMPLE OF JUPITER OPTIMUS MAXIMUS (Capitolinus) – Perhaps the most ancient sanctuary of Rome. Standing on the Capitoline hill, it was built during the age of the Tarquinian kings and dedicated to the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno and Minerva). It was burned down, restructured and restored numerous times. Its original architecture must have closely resembled an Etruscan temple, with a tufa podium, masonry walls and a wooden roof, decorated with multi-hued terracotta ornaments.
TEMPLE OF SATURN – The oldest temple in Rome, along with the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Construction was begun during the age of the kings and the temple was inaugurated in the fifth century BC. Completely rebuilt by Munatius Plancus three years after Caesar’s death.
TEMPLE OF VENUS GENETRIX – Built by Julius Caesar in his forum. The sanctuary was dedicated to the legendary forebear of the gens Julia who was believed to have descended from Julus, the son of Aeneas, who was the son of Venus herself. The propagandistic intent was evident: Caesar was the new father of his homeland, following in the steps of Aeneas.
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